Derek Sabato on the CZW-NPWD Controversy

[Big Red Machine]

Full disclosure: I have a close relationship with CHIKARA Pro and am not friends with CZW or the owner DJ Hyde. I’m going to attempt to write this as objectively as possible but my opinion may come through more than I want it to. If anybody has anything to say about what is written in this article I’m not hard to find. Tweet me @DerekSabato or e-mail me at dereksabato@gmail.com.

A couple days before the event that was held on Saturday at the National Guard Armory, “National Pro Wrestling Day” there were various rumors of things that were going on with the show. The show would be moved from it’s original location Derby Ink Gardens to the Armory due to an issue with that building. This may be a surprise, this may happen, things of that nature. There was a strong rumor going around as well that CZW would make it’s prescence felt at the show in some way, shape or form. That was the plan according to many in the CZW locker room and that Owner DJ Hyde was behind the idea.

CZW wasn’t invited to National Pro Wrestling Day due to various issues between the promoters and CZW. CZW ended up throwing basically a fit about not being invited and in the most mature way possible it launched a new online slogan “Wrestling Fears CZW” in various hashtags in their social media outlets. They also announced that since they weren’t invited they were going to have a live iPPV with the old gimmick of the Ultraviolent Underground and having no paying customers were going to charge for it through their streaming site www.hybrident.tv which is run by Michael Pancoast. In various releases in the build-up to the show they were throwing out “If you want a war you got one” verbiage which is just asinine. The closer the show go to the date nothing had been announced but wrestlers were booked and a
couple of them were actually paid ahead of time.

In what ended up being a huge blow-up Michael Pancoast pulled his services from CZW and separated himself completely from the company leaving CZW with no outlet for their show and no production team. It’s not known exactly that ended up causing the end of the long time relationship or who will replace Pancoast but the rumors around the Northeast indy scene is that DJ and Pancoast butted heads on expanding CZW’s online presence with having more than 1 website stream their shows as evidenced by the amount of CZW shows currently on Smart Mark Video’s streaming site SMVod.com.
With no show now after trying to steal the thunder from National Pro Wrestling Day and cut up a small audience for no reason other than to be difficult CZW was put into spin control. Wrestlers have been paid for no show. So what did CZW come up with? A plan not only to “steal the show” but to disrupt National Pro Wrestling Day and take it over. CZW Owner DJ Hyde reached out to some in the locker room and some of the wrestlers that had been booked, paid and had flights paid for that at a certain part of the show they were going to jump the rail and take the microphone from ring announcer Gavin Loudspeaker and basically hold the show hostage to get over their “Wrestling Fears CZW” platform. They also had plans for some of the wrestlers to walk to the ring with “Wrestling Fears CZW” shirts they had come out with as well.

While CZW was planning this their wrestlers who didn’t agree with the plan…and there were enough…contacted National Pro Wrestling Day promoters and gave them a heads-up that this is being planned and in the works. It’s not known if Atlas Security was brought in because of this or if they were booked before the “threat” was made on the show but they were present and accounted for at the Armory. While this was going on National Pro Wrestling Day promoters had actually contacted two CZW wrestlers to work their event without the knowledge of DJ Hyde. The wrestlers were booked and after that NPWD promoters contacted CZW about their plans for their show and that they had a CZW match they would want to put on as an olive branch of sorts and to make sure whatever they had planned on doing was not going to happen. CZW refused and actually stated this was part of their new marketing approach and they wouldn’t stop.

Let me put into words exactly how stupid this is. You have wrestlers that work for you that are working for many companies represented by this event. It’s being streamed nationally in the efforts of exposing people to some promotions that they’re not aware of. As someone who has booked talent before for a company with a stigma (CZW in fact) it’s hard to get people to cooperate with them. You’re putting the wrestlers in the back at risk by doing this. You’re making any new fans that came to the building or bought online to watch two shows have the worst taste in their mouth. Would it had gotten people talking about CZW? Yes. Would it had been good publicity? I can’t imagine anyone would speak highly of CZW after they jump the rail and take over a show. Is there a less professional way to do business? I can’t think of one. The rule in professional wrestling is that if it looks like an angle it’s probably an angle. You gain nothing for doing what is quite possibly something people will not care about. You also put your wrestlers at risk on having the police called and spending a night in jail to get your company publicity.

Finally a resolution came to pass and a 3rd member of CZW was added to their scheduled match and were able to get a merchandise table at the event. Their match happened and that was it. It was also reported that when CZW got to the building a request was made that DJ Hyde get 3 minutes of microphone time afterwards to explain why CZW was originally not on the show and was turned down. It was to the point that when the CZW match started all working microphones were brought to the back to make sure there was no attempt after the match to attempt to take over and hijack the show.

This may all sound petty to someone that doesn’t remember the Philly wrestling wars all those years ago. It is EXTREMELY petty. Is it petty that NPWD promoters didn’t want CZW on the show? You can think it might be. After this whole episode can you blame them for not wanting them on the show? The foresight into thinking that jumping the rail on a show is in someway a good idea to get your company publicity is what really bothers me. The process of putting together something like this together is not easy. The original promotions announced were people that had done business with CHIKARA previously. When you undertake an operation like this of course you’re going to work with the promotions you’ve done business with previously and have never had a problem. This was the original idea for National Pro Wrestling Day: 16 matches and 2 shows of 8 each. Obviously from the way it expanded it grew into something much larger. CHIKARA works regularly with places like AIW, CWF Mid-Atlantic, ROH, Evolve, etc. When it was announced any company that had any type of relationship with CHIKARA obviously wanted to be part of it since it was launched on a CHIKARA iPPV. There were 23 matches when all was said and done. 22 of the matches dealt with companies that CHIKARA has had a long standing relationship with. 22 of those matches all came to their call time at the time they were asked to be. The 23rd match booked on the show…the local company probably closest to the building than any of the other companies…was the only one who missed their call time. After it was all said and done the company that cried and complained and advertised that “Wrestling Fears CZW” couldn’t make it to the building on time.

Another thing that bothers me is the way CZW presents itself in their press releases. They are quite possibly the most unprofessional I’ve ever seen. This was from CZWrestling.com when it was announced CZW was added to NPWD: “Its being said that the only reason CZW was given the spot on this huge event is because the organizers feared what CZW would do if not invited. ” That’s a direct quote. Forget the grammar errors for a second and actually read that sentence nice and hard. Yes something that was in the works for months…was a huge under taking…a hassle that at the end of the day wasn’t worth it for the promoters and now have to deal with a level of unprofessional-ism that hasn’t been seen since XPW probably and yes you have CZW crying for two months about how “Wrestling Fears CZW” and this is their approach.

I haven’t gotten along with DJ Hyde since he bought CZW. This is another showing of exactly why. John Zandig was a lot of things but this was something I’m sure never would’ve crossed his mind. He would never put his wrestlers at risk like that. He never wanted CZW portrayed in a negative light. This would’ve been a PR disaster for the company and they’re lucky sense was talked into their owner before the chance and risk was made to not execute the plan. Personally I would never want to do business with a company that intended to do that and risk so much for all those companies that had something on the show and sent their wrestlers and time and effort to help them grow and expand. I wouldn’t want to work for them after this. I don’t advocate anyone turning down a payday but it’s time to start realizing they’re doing more harm than good to the business if this is their approach.

There was so much done this weekend to help indy wrestling all over the country. Connections were made. Fans were made for companies that no one was aware of. It all could’ve been ruined by one company who doesn’t want to be professional. It’s a shame as they have a lot of talent and should be trying to get people to watch their company for the right reasons…not the wrong ones.

[cero2k]

interesting, i had no idea this had gone down

[Big Red Machine]

interesting, i had no idea this had gone down

Me either.